Name: Tarek Abdallah
Event type: Lunch series
Title: Bundle Selling Strategies: Design, Analysis and Practical Insights
Abstract: Bundling is a pervasive selling practice across various
industries. Many multi-product firms engage in selling bundles with the intent
of extracting a large consumer surplus. In this talk, we discuss two commonly
used bundling strategies (1) pure bundling (PB) where the firm bundles all of
its products into a single package and (2) bundle size pricing (BSP) where the
firm prices the size of the bundle regardless of which items are included in
it. We briefly discuss the limitations of a pure bundling strategy and focus
mainly on the design and analysis of the BSP strategy. In BSP, the firm offers
the customer a menu of different sizes and prices. The customer then chooses
the size that maximizes his surplus and customizes his bundle given his chosen
size. While BSP is commonly used across several industries, little is known
about the optimal BSP policy in terms of sizes and prices along with the
theoretical properties of its profit. In this talk, we provide a simple and
tractable theoretical framework to analyze the large-scale BSP problem where a
multi-product firm is selling a large number of products. The BSP problem is in
general hard as it involves optimizing over order statistics, however we show
that for large numbers of products, the BSP problem transforms from a hard
multi-dimensional problem to a simple multi-unit pricing problem with concave
and increasing utilities. Our framework allows us to identify the main source
of inefficiency of BSP that is the heterogeneity of marginal costs across
products. For this reason, we propose two new BSP policies called “clustered
BSP” and “assorted BSP” that significantly reduce the inefficiency of regular
BSP. We then utilize our framework to study richer models of BSP such as when
customers have budgets and when there exist multiple customer types.
- Name: Susan Marlow
Event type: Research Talk
Title: Digital Enterprise – A great leveler or just the same old story?
Abstract: Research Talk: Since the 1980s, entrepreneurial activity has
popularly been hailed as a global agentic solution to many contemporary
socioeconomic challenges. Recently the development and deployment of
information and computing technologies (ICTs) has been increasingly influential
in fulling entrepreneurial possibility through the expansion of on-line or
digital ventures which, it is argued, require few resources to create or
operate. Accordingly, within public discourse and policy initiatives, it has
been suggested that this combination of ICT and entrepreneurship offers a route
out of under- and unemployment for the socially disadvantaged and so, greater
socioeconomic participation which in turn, contributes to wider economic.
Currently, there is sparse evidence regarding the participation of marginalized
people in entrepreneurial activity per se and even less pertaining to digital
entrepreneurship but that which does exist suggests their engagement with
online trading is expanding rapidly. Despite the growing importance of digital
entrepreneurship, and related claims regarding participation opportunities,
there is a relatively limited critique of such possibilities. Within this
seminar, we develop a critical analysis exploring the realities of the digital
entrepreneurship phenomenon in the contemporary era for marginalized groups.
Using the example of marginalized women subject to disadvantageous gendered
ascriptions, it is suggested that the digital space reproduces offline barriers
to those seeking to create new ventures online. We consider emerging critiques
interrogating the internet as an enabling context when theorizing the
relationship between social conditions, entrepreneurship, and contemporary
digital technologies.
Name: Susan Marlow
Event type: Workshop
Title: Developing your publication strategy and academic writing skills
Abstract: The publication process can be immensely rewarding and also
traumatic and dispiriting – but for most of us it is an important aspect of
career development. In this seminar, we will consider various publication
strategies which fit differing career stages, discuss how to action this
strategy with a focus upon journal article publications. Drawing upon my experience as a journal
editor and published author, I can share advice, experiences and strategies to
help develop ideas, structure arguments, emphasise contribution and critically,
how to express your ideas coherently to develop a conversation with your
intended audience. The session will
cover both qualitative and quantitative approaches and discuss submissions to
leading UK and US journals within the area of business and management with a
focus upon entrepreneurship but the issues raised have relevance beyond this
field. In addition, we will discuss and debate how to revise and resubmit
papers, how to move on from rejections and tips upon how to refine your
research and writing skills and so ultimately, develop a strong publication
profile and survive the process!
Name: Hani Safadi
Event type: Research Talk
Title: Cognitive Augmentation of Human Sensemaking of Large Textual Data
Abstract: Five decades ago, Herbert Simon identified the challenge of
extracting useful patterns from data, rather than storing larger amounts of
data. This predicament is much more salient today, particularly for decision
makers overloaded by information. The language and cognitive schemas that
humans have evolved over thousands of years are now encountering a new kind of
environment in which people are increasingly blinded to the limits of thought
and action. Overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information associated with
complex problems and highly ambiguous circumstances, decision makers face a
variety of challenges that at times can seem insurmountable. Knowledge workers
in many professions depend on reading and making sense of textual data.
Journalists, lawyers and investigative analysts all need to read through many
documents, categorize events and concepts, and connect threads of evidence in
order to reach conclusions. As the number of documents grows, sensemaking
becomes more challenging. One recent example is the Panama Papers leak.
Journalists spent three years analyzing 3TB of text before they reached a
conclusion about illegal offshoring activities. Today, there are many tools for
content analysis and discovery. However, most of these tools are designed for
specific information retrieval tasks. We lack the understanding of how these
technologies augment human cognition to serve sensemaking. The future of
knowledge work will involve technologies that augment human sensemaking of
large amounts of text data. The Open Data Innovation Project (ODIN) has two key
elements. First, we build a tool that integrates and extends methods for
unifying and visualizing text data in the domain problem of legislative law.
Then we design and conduct a set of experiments centered on human sensemaking
to elicit general principles for human cognitive augmentation. This
presentation will focus on the first part. I will overview the theoretical and
design principles of the ODIN project. I will then present some applications of
ODIN. I am hoping that I can stir some interest in ODIN and that scholars and
practitioners will be interested in using it for new applications and in new
domains.
Name: Fadi Harfoush
Event type: Workshop
Title: Business Analytics: The Art, Science, and Business of Big Data
Abstract: This two days workshop will explore the growing field of
business analytics and how academic institutions are adapting. The speaker will
share his longtime experience in research labs, private industry,
entrepreneurship, and current role in academia on how best to bridge the gap
between the traditional academic learning and evolving industry needs. The
focus will be on the applied learning and the business opportunities. The
workshop will end with selected demos and hands-on lab sessions leveraging some
of the main tools in the industry.
Name: Yasmeen Makarem
Event type: Workshop
Title: Human Resources Development Review: Non-Empirical Research: Tips for Success
Abstract: The workshop session is designed to provide guidance on how
to publish findings from non-empirical research. The term "non-empirical
research" is used to refer to any research that is conducted using methods
other than quantitative, qualitative, or mixed research methods. Specifically,
we will focus on four types of research-literature review, conceptual, critical
and theory or model-building research. We will also offer tips on how to
develop quality manuscripts that are publishable. Given that each research
project involves literature review, it is hoped that this session will
stimulate researchers’ interest in disseminating the findings from their
non-empirical work through journal publications. The primary purpose of this
session is to provide participants with knowledge about and guidance for how to
develop quality non-empirical research articles for journal publications. In this
session, we will distinguish four types of non-empirical research for the
participants (traditional/ integrative/ systematic literature reviews,
conceptual work, critical research, and theory or model-building research),
examine their characteristics, and highlight the nature of research problems
associated with each type. In addition, we will provide criteria for evaluating
the four discussed types along with practical tips for preparing high quality
manuscripts. With this knowledge, authors will be better positioned to
determine what type of research papers to prepare for a quality journal such as
HRDR.
Name: Amanda Shantz
Event type: Research Talk
Title: Human Resources Attributions- Developing a Theoretical Framework
Abstract: HR Attributions theory explains how individuals respond to
HR practices according to their beliefs about their organization's intentions –
whether practices are implemented to comply with external regulations, due to
an HR philosophy of enhancing commitment, or enforcing control. Despite
significant scholarly interest in the theory over the past decade, theoretical
and empirical development has been slow. In particular, we know little about
attribution formation, which is key for the theory to have utility in our
understanding of the causal chain between HR practices and organizational
performance. Through this stream of research, we aim to provide some clarity
about how HR attributions are formed, drawing on the fundamental principles of
attribution theories from social psychology. In the first paper – which
involved two pilot studies to aid conceptual development, followed by a
two-wave survey of 347 academics in UK higher education institutions – we test
an interactive model of different classes of antecedents to HR attributions.We
find that individuals’ HR attributions are formed by specific information about
the practice (fairness perceptions) interacting with their general beliefs
(organizational cynicism) as well as their motivation to make attributions
(perceived relevance). In the second study – a multi-level sample of 267
employees from China, nested within 49 work teams and combined with individual
performance data – we examine how consensus, both within-teams and between
employees and managers, informs attribution formation. In line with HR system
strength, another attribution-based theory, we find that individuals
attributions are informed by idiosyncratic information about their relationship
with their manager (leader-member exchange) more when consensus is low, and
furthermore that their attributions are related to performance outcomes. The
two studies bring together formerly disparate streams of attribution-based
theories, which offers theoretical development to take this field further. I
will also discuss some fundamental questions about HR attributions theory which
remain unanswered, which will guide our future research.
Name: Amanda Shantz
Event type: Workshop
Title: Human Relations Workshop
Abstract: This 3-hour workshop is designed for emerging and more
seasoned academics who wish to submit research papers to Human Relations.
Participants will learn about the history of the journal, its aims and scope,
and the mechanics of the review process. The participants will be provided with
an example paper with associated reviews and editorial decision letters to
understand how a manuscript is improved and refined through the review process
to successful publication. The participant-led approach to this workshop will
lead to new insights into the review process at Human Relations. Participants
will be required to read pre-work (approximately 2 hours of pre-work). Please
make sure to read the Social Scripts of Academic Careers: A Concept Revised
document before attending the workshop by clicking on the article's name.
Name: Fayez El Hajj
Event type: Open Discussion
Portfolio Management: Challenges and Solutions”
Abstract: N/A